"The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted 140-6 to approve a resolution that says the Palestinians "have the right to self-determination and to sovereignty over their territory."

The vote was supposed to take place earlier in the day, but it was postponed to allow changes demanded by European countries to an earlier draft proposed by the PLO.

Israel, the United States and four Pacific islands were among the nations that voted against the resolution, while the 11 abstentions included Australia, Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

According to the draft, "the status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, reminds one of military occupation, and affirm, in accordance with the rules and principles of international law and relevant resolutiuons of the United Nations, including Security Council resolutions, that the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination and to sovereignty over their territory, and that Israel, the occupying power, has only the duties and obligations of an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention."

..considering the UN Charter contains something about the right to self-determination. More ineffectual white-noise from the General Assembly with the predictable outcome that most of the world agrees with the UN Charter, while two rogue states oppose it, four shitty* and microscopic Pacific islands whose survival is dependant on US funding also oppose it, while a few client states of the US sit on the sidelines. Same time next month for a dose of exactly the same thing...

This bit of the article was cute:

Earlier Thursday, Israel told the UN that passing a draft resolution affirming Palestinian sovereignty over land outside the Green Line would undermine this week's statement by the Quartet for Mideast peace that borders must be determined bilaterally.

The Quartet - the UN, United States, European Union and Russia - said Tuesday that the issues of borders and refugee settlement must be resolved in final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel maintains that sovereignty over the territories is, likewise, a matter to be negotiated in final-status talks.

Yeah, like building a fence deep inside the West Bank and doing a defacto annexation, or Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan isn't undermining any calls for borders to be determined bilaterally. Pulling out that weak excuse to use in a very selective manner does give them more mileage with their incessant bullshit about there being no-one to negotiate with in order for the occupation to keep on keeping on...

* Shitty was one of the tamer ways used to describe some Pacific islands by people who'd drawn the short straw and scored a posting to one of them instead of a more desirable posting when I was temping at DFAT a few years back...

Israel, the United States and four Pacific islands were among the nations that voted against the resolution, while the 11 abstentions included Australia, Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

I did read something about him condemning Israels targeted assassinations, but apart from that I know very little about his views on the issue. Considering his stance on mandatory detention for asylum seekers, it wouldn't surprise me if once in power he turned into the arse-licker he rightly accused Howard of being, and Australia continues to abstain in resolutions like this one. At least for the Liberals, with their stance of blindly agreeing with the US on everything, not voting the same way as the US can be seen as just a bit rebellious for them, but for the ALP abstentions are a betrayal to their voters...

"U.S. President George W. Bush backed off of the "road map" peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, saying that keeping the promise of a Palestinian state by 2005 "may be hard," in a 38-minute interview published Friday night.

As part of his efforts in trying to ameliorate the Arab world prior to his invasion of Iraq. It was all show for the cameras with never any real attempt at any substance except for whatever was necessary to get him to the start of the invasion.

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